Using the time tracker

How to track time on desktop and the mobile app's stopwatch feature so you can automatically calculate billable hours

Updated over a week ago

The time tracker tool is a great way to keep tabs on where your time is going – design, brainstorming, coffee with clients — especially for elements of a Project that aren't specifically detailed in an Invoice that you've sent. You can also take any of the time you track and drop it right into a new Invoice, so you never lose a billable minute!

There are two ways to log time when using HoneyBook. From our desktop you can easily manually add time you've recorded for a given project, but on our mobile app there is a stopwatch feature to help you log the start and end of your time worked.

The best use case for manually recording time on the desktop version of HoneyBook is when you've already tracked your time for a given project and need to simply add that time to the project's time log. If you'd like HoneyBook to help you track the time you're working, we suggest you use our stopwatch time tracking feature on the Mobile App instead.


Recording time on desktop

1.  Find or create the Project that you'll be tracking time for.

  • Find a Project: search via the search icon in the top left corner of your Home page, or select the Projects tab to review your full list of Projects.

  • Create a Project: learn how here.

2.  Once in the Project's Workspace, click Time Tracker in the Project Options tool bar.

3.  Click Log New.

4.  Enter the details for the time entry, including:

  • Type of work completed

  • Number of hours

  • Hourly rate

  • Date completed

5.  Click Save Entry.



Recording time on the mobile app

There are 3 ways to use the stopwatch time tracker on the mobile app: through your tools tab, inside of a project, or from the + icon. You can also manually log time, just like above on the desktop, through the mobile app if you've already tracked how much time you've worked for a given project.

1. To log time from your home screen in the app, either click Tools>Track Time or click the + icon>Track Time.

2. You can also track time from inside of a project. To do this click the 3-dot icon in the top right of the project and select Track time for this project from the menu that appears.

3. Regardless of where you choose to track time from, you'll see this screen. From here you see the option to start tracking time, or manually log time. To start the stopwatch time tracker, click the play button. To manually log time simply click "log time manually".

4. When you hit the play button the stopwatch clock will start counting and you may begin your work.

5. To minimize the stopwatch you can swipe down or tap the background. You'll still see a banner inside the HoneyBook app letting you know your time is still tracking so you don't forget about it.

6. You may click the banner at anytime to return to the stopwatch and hit pause. Pausing allows you to save or edit the time tracked.

7. Regardless of if you're using the stopwatch time tracker or manually entering your time worked, you'll see this screen. If you've used the stopwatch, the duration field will auto-populate. If you're tracking from inside of a project, you'll already see the time connected to the project. The only fields that are required are the description, duration, and date.

8. Once everything looks good, hit Save Tracked Time.

PLEASE NOTE: Once you log your time, you can only review, edit, or bill for that time logged through desktop.


Creating an invoice for your tracked hours:

Regardless of how you record your time (through desktop or mobile, through the time tracker or manually logging), your tracked hours will accumulate in the time tracker section of your Project, automatically calculating the total billable amount so you can easily see how many additional hours you need to account for, and send an Invoice if you need.

📣 Note

Invoices for tracked time will appear in the main project workspace, and everyone in that workspace will be able to view the invoice. You currently cannot limit who the invoice is sent to using related workspaces.

1.  From the Time Tracker section, click Create Invoice.

2.  Check the boxes for the tracked entries you'd like to include in the Invoice.

3.  Click Next.

4.  This will automatically create an Invoice for you, containing the billable hours you selected. You can then customize the Invoice however else you'd like, and send it off.




Still have questions? Feel free to send us a message by clicking the Question Mark icon on any HoneyBook page. Our team is always happy to help!

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